In February 2009, the Congress approved and the President signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, also known as the Stimulus Act). Part of ARRA, known as the HITECH Act, provides physicians with the opportunity to receive incentives through the Medicare or Medicaid (Medi-Cal) programs for implementing and using electronic health records (EHRs).
In order to access these incentives, physicians will need to demonstrate “meaningful use” of their EHR systems. The Stimulus Act only provided an outline for what meaningful use would entail. According to the Act, meaningful use involved a physician demonstrating to the federal Health and Human Services Agency (HHS) that:
- The EHR was used in a meaningful way, including electronic prescribing;
- The EHR is connected in such a way as to facilitate information exchange; and
- The physician reports on clinical quality measures.
On July 28, 2010, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a final rule in the Federal Register providing all of the details of meaningful use. The final rule, which is more than 800 pages in length, explains each of the measures on which physicians will have to report in order to receive their incentive payments. (Read CMA’s summary of the final rule.)
To achieve meaningful use, physicians will have to report on 15 required objectives and five “menu set” objectives (selected from a list of 10). Each of these objectives has an associated measure, which is the actual criteria a physician has to demonstrate in order to achieve the objective.
To help physicians understand the criteria for meaningful use, CMA has published the "Physician Guidebook for Meaningful Use." This guide explains each of the reporting measures required.